Reflections: essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writing

A companion volume to Illuminations, the first collection of Walter Benjamin's writings, Reflections presents a further sampling of his wide-ranging work. Here Benjamin evolves a theory of language as the medium of all creation, discusses theater and surrealism, reminisces about Berlin in the 1920s, recalls conversations with Bertolt Brecht, and provides travelogues of various cities, including Moscow under Stalin. He moves seamlessly from literary criticism to autobiography to philosophical-theological speculations, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest and most versatile writers of the twentieth century. Also included is a new preface by Leon Wieseltier that explores Benjamin's continued relevance for our times.

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Seite 314Language in such contexts means the tendency inherent in the subjects
concerned — technology, art, justice, or religion — toward the communication of
mental meanings. To sum up: all communication of mental meanings is language
, ...

Seite 316Mental is identical with linguistic being only insofar as it is capable of communication. What is communicable in a mental entity is its linguistic entity.
Language therefore communicates the particular linguistic being of things, but
their mental ...

Seite 318It holds that the means of communication is the word, its object factual, its
addressee a human being. The other conception of language, in contrast, knows
no means, no object, and no addressee of communication. It meansj/in naming
the ...

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We can remark in passing that there is no better starting point for thought than laughter. In particular, thought usually has a better chance when one is shaken by laughter than when one’s mind is ...Vollständige Rezension lesen